From Flab to Abs.

[Bloodstain]

The crucial thing is that he left out the weight that you'll be using to do the exercise so just start low and work up to what you feel comfortable with (so you're as tired as possible by the end of your session but you're just about able to finish each set). As for each exercise, just google them or look them up on youtube, there are loads of instructional videos on the correct way to do each exercise.

 

Always start with the bar. Don't put any weight on it until you think you've got it right, then incrementally (by 5 pounds - 2.5 pounds per side) increase it until you can't do more reps that I posted.

 

If you want to see form, just google "military press exrx" or "incline bench press exrx". EXRX is a great website.

 

And as for benching, the best video is

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/dave_tates_sixweek_bench_press_cure

[obfuscator]

I have not much arm muscle and you're wanting me to jump into something like that?

Day One:

Bench Press: 2 x 6-8

Incline DB/BB Press: 2 x 10-12

Military Press: 2 x 6-8

DB Skull Crushers or Close Grip Bench Press with 4-5" ROM (Not all the way down to your chest and your index fingers should be where the knurling starts): 2x10-12

 

Im trying to stay lean, not turn into Arnie.

 

high rep, low weight workouts will tone, not bulk up muscles to huge proportions. While what Tim posted is a little low it's not that far off.

For the one hundred millionth time, toning is a myth. Lifting weight builds muscles. Trimming fat makes them show. If you lift weight that isn't challenging, your muscles won't change.

 

By the way, you can do hundreds of situps a day, but all it will do is make you look fat if you haven't cut down excess fat. If all you want to do is see your abs, and you don't particularly want to gain strength, do minimal ab exercises and focus on cardio/good diet.

[Guy]

I can't help you with any of the actual exercise, but I've had/have the same problem w/ the coke as you. I found that buying a water cooler (not terribly expensive) and sticking it next to my desk stopped me drinking quite so much (I guess drinking coke was just for quenching my thirst).

[pennywise]

HERE DUDE READ THIS:

 

http://www.liamrosen.com/fitness.html

[Natedoggygog]

I couldn't be bothered reading what everyone else said, so I apologize in advance if this has been said already, or anything along the lines of it..

 

I live a very healthy lifestyle and am proud of what I have achieved. To get in shape there are only a few key things to follow along and you will get results.

 

First of all, drop the pop. I know how hard it is to do, but you will notice how much better you feel after not drinking it for a while. If you ever get the urge to have a coke, go get some water. There are also several sports drinks out there that can satisfy your thirst better than pop. As I heard, pop actually makes you thirstier, it dehydrates you, that's why you're always thirsty probably.

 

On to the second piece of advice, your workout. It would work better if you can go to a gym to do this, but at home works just as well. If you go to a gym, work on several different machines with a weight that fits your strength. Do 3 sets of 10 reps on each machine that you want to work, they should list the muscle that they work on. If you can't go to a gym there are the at home things to do... Go to a local fitness store and buy a 20 pound weight, or whatever weight you think fits you (I personally have a 40, but 20 is a good round weight to start with). Set a time for yourself, like every 30 minutes or an hour do a workout set. In this set you should do some curls with the weight (about 10-20 on each arm), skull crushers (look them up, do about 15) , then about 50-75 crunches on each side of your stomach (left, right, and middle). If you want, you can throw in some push-ups too, just do them until failure each set. I find one thing that improves your strength really well with push-ups is to do as many as you can every night before you fall to sleep. Over the course of a couple months I moved myself from 40 push-ups to about 75, so it works very well.

 

At home try and watch what you eat, switch out some fruit or vegetables in place of the unhealthy food that may be served to you, and again, instead of a coke for dinner, try milk. Milk has lots of protein in it, so it can help you recover from the sore muscles you might have from working out.

 

I hope I helped, if you need any more advice I'd love to help you.

[NukeMarine]

I have not much arm muscle and you're wanting me to jump into something like that?

Day One:

Bench Press: 2 x 6-8

Incline DB/BB Press: 2 x 10-12

Military Press: 2 x 6-8

DB Skull Crushers or Close Grip Bench Press with 4-5 ROM (Not all the way down to your chest and your index fingers should be where the knurling starts): 2x10-12

 

Im trying to stay lean, not turn into Arnie.

Well there's your problem. You want advice when it's already apparent you know it all. Trust us, stop asking for a six-pack when you ain't got a chest to put it in.

 

Want a six-pack? Just lose fat by eating less but balancing it with equal calories in good fats, good carbs and protein. Like it's already been said, muscle definition is just about losing fat but does not mean you have better health or strength.

 

Want actually strength, health, and strong abs? Build you over-all strength with something like Mark Rippetoe's book "Starting Strength", drinking a gallon of milk a day like he advises (build up to that oven two to three weeks genious), then later use a gpp program like CrossFit mixed with Paleo or Zone Diet to turn into a healthy, physically fit person.

 

Then again, there's always liposuction and ab paint.

[Bloodstain]

Do 3 sets of 10 reps on each machine that you want to work, they should list the muscle that they work on

 

Don't listen to this guy

[Natedoggygog]

Do 3 sets of 10 reps on each machine that you want to work, they should list the muscle that they work on

 

Don't listen to this guy

 

I can bet you almost anything my body is 10 times better than whatever yours is. It's a generic amount of reps/sets for machines. But you wouldn't know that would you? Try football, weight lifting, swimming, and triathlons out for size mate.

[Bloodstain]

Do 3 sets of 10 reps on each machine that you want to work, they should list the muscle that they work on

 

Don't listen to this guy

 

I can bet you almost anything my body is 10 times better than whatever yours is. It's a generic amount of reps/sets for machines. But you wouldn't know that would you? Try football, weight lifting, swimming, and triathlons out for size mate.

 

Going in and just doing whatever is [developmentally delayed]ed and you are [developmentally delayed]ed for suggesting it.

[Natedoggygog]

[hide]

Do 3 sets of 10 reps on each machine that you want to work, they should list the muscle that they work on

 

Don't listen to this guy

 

I can bet you almost anything my body is 10 times better than whatever yours is. It's a generic amount of reps/sets for machines. But you wouldn't know that would you? Try football, weight lifting, swimming, and triathlons out for size mate.

[/hide]

 

Going in and just doing whatever is [developmentally delayed]ed and you are [developmentally delayed]ed for suggesting it.

 

Where did I say he should do whatever? Of course you are working on a specific set of muscles each time you go in. No where did I talk about having a walk around the gym and doing anything that you fancy.

[Bloodstain]

. If you go to a gym, work on several different machines with a weight that fits your strength. Do 3 sets of 10 reps on each machine that you want to work, they should list the muscle that they work on.

 

I see no mention of a routine or any sort of specific way about going about this. Also he should avoid machines unless he's trying to isolate. I see "just go in and go on whatever machine you feel like". Also it's safe to say that OP is never coming back

[Natedoggygog]

I see you're just pulling words out of your ass now. :) Want to discuss it some more? PM me

[Bloodstain]

I see you're just pulling words out of your ass now. :) Want to discuss it some more? PM me

 

I'm saying exactly what you said

[Vulxai]

Nate, You did not mention anything specific, that's where the confusion is. Bloodstain is correct in saying that just doing anything is not very smart. That's not saying you said that, you just didn't give specifics, and in most cases when people ask questions, they'll need specifics.

 

Bloodstain, Tim is on leave, so he'll most likely check it when he gets time.

[Myweponsg00d]

Bro, at 5'11" 158 lbs you are nowhere close to "turning into arnie"

 

If you just lost your bodyfat right now and didn't put on a significant ammount of muscle, you wont look hot or sexy or good. Youd look like a twig.

 

Please post a picture of your torso, with a picture of what you think you would like to look like. I almost guarantee that the physique you want would require some hard hours in the gym and a high protein diet for building muscle.

 

This whole "lean out" and "I dont want to get bulky" is a common misconception. Most movie stars and stuff who don't LOOK very big actually have a LOT of muscle. Muscle weighs a ton.

 

PS: There is lots and lots of very silly advice in this thread. Not gonna call anyone out on it though. If you'd like to discuss this with me in private chat I can hook you up with solid info.

[fastortoise]

This whole "lean out" and "I dont want to get bulky" is a common misconception. Most movie stars and stuff who don't LOOK very big actually have a LOT of muscle. Muscle weighs a ton.

This is very true and not a lot of people realize this so here's me pointing it out. To me, movie starts were all doing some sort of crazy Californian yoga slash odd diet slash light weight lifting programmes to get the bodies they have, but it turns out they do intense body building. I only really started gaining noticeable (only to myself mind you) muscle mass is when I started on the protein shakes.

[Vulxai]

This whole "lean out" and "I dont want to get bulky" is a common misconception. Most movie stars and stuff who don't LOOK very big actually have a LOT of muscle. Muscle weighs a ton.

This is very true and not a lot of people realize this so here's me pointing it out. To me, movie starts were all doing some sort of crazy Californian yoga slash odd diet slash light weight lifting programmes to get the bodies they have, but it turns out they do intense body building. I only really started gaining noticeable (only to myself mind you) muscle mass is when I started on the protein shakes.

 

Another thing, the guys from 300 trained for what, 6 months before the film? And it was ALL DAY LONG. They still weren't Arnie, they were built as [cabbage], but they don't exactly walk around lifting competitively.

[NukeMarine]

This whole "lean out" and "I dont want to get bulky" is a common misconception. Most movie stars and stuff who don't LOOK very big actually have a LOT of muscle. Muscle weighs a ton.

This is very true and not a lot of people realize this so here's me pointing it out. To me, movie starts were all doing some sort of crazy Californian yoga slash odd diet slash light weight lifting programmes to get the bodies they have, but it turns out they do intense body building. I only really started gaining noticeable (only to myself mind you) muscle mass is when I started on the protein shakes.

 

Another thing, the guys from 300 trained for what, 6 months before the film? And it was ALL DAY LONG. They still weren't Arnie, they were built as [cabbage], but they don't exactly walk around lifting competitively.

The actors trained for four months with Mark Twight who got his exercise methodology from CrossFit.com (he even did a couple of certifications for them). As such, the "300" actors and stuntmen did routines that built functional physical fitness which translated into looking really good on film ie the FORM followed the FUNCTION. If you're able squat 300 pounds, deadlift over 400 pounds, run a mile in 5 minutes, jump onto a 2 foot box 50 times in less than a minute, etc, then your body is going to look good.

 

PS: It wasn't ALL DAY LONG. The physical fitness portion took less than an hour a day. Even the director showed up in the mornings and performed the workouts the actors would be doing later that day. The rest of the day for actors and stuntmen did involve learning formation, spear work, rehearsal for events when it came time to film, etc.

[Vulxai]

This whole "lean out" and "I dont want to get bulky" is a common misconception. Most movie stars and stuff who don't LOOK very big actually have a LOT of muscle. Muscle weighs a ton.

This is very true and not a lot of people realize this so here's me pointing it out. To me, movie starts were all doing some sort of crazy Californian yoga slash odd diet slash light weight lifting programmes to get the bodies they have, but it turns out they do intense body building. I only really started gaining noticeable (only to myself mind you) muscle mass is when I started on the protein shakes.

 

Another thing, the guys from 300 trained for what, 6 months before the film? And it was ALL DAY LONG. They still weren't Arnie, they were built as [cabbage], but they don't exactly walk around lifting competitively.

The actors trained for four months with Mark Twight who got his exercise methodology from CrossFit.com (he even did a couple of certifications for them). As such, the "300" actors and stuntmen did routines that built functional physical fitness which translated into looking really good on film ie the FORM followed the FUNCTION. If you're able squat 300 pounds, deadlift over 400 pounds, run a mile in 5 minutes, jump onto a 2 foot box 50 times in less than a minute, etc, then your body is going to look good.

 

PS: It wasn't ALL DAY LONG. The physical fitness portion took less than an hour a day. Even the director showed up in the mornings and performed the workouts the actors would be doing later that day. The rest of the day for actors and stuntmen did involve learning formation, spear work, rehearsal for events when it came time to film, etc.

 

My mistake, I must of mis-remembered an interview with Gerard Butler, but I'm pretty sure it was over an hour, not by much, but it was still intense.

[ElkNight]

Flexing your abs while sitting down/at school/whatever actually does something or no?

 

Ive read both ways from a bunch of different places. I can't be bothered looking it up right now, but I'm pretty sure some places

said it was an isometric exercise or something. And other places said it didn't do anything.

 

Just curious. Any one know for sure?

[pennywise]

It doesn't do anything.

[NukeMarine]

Learn to do Glute Ham Developer (GHD) Sit-ups. Here's a nice video demostration: Glassman Explains the GHD Sit-up Mechanics. Of course, you don't want to start out with this. Placing a rolled up towel under your lumbar curve, doing full reach sit-ups (hands touch ground behind head, then goes to touch the toes) helps here.

 

If it helps, here's a free video demonstrating High School kids doing some serious exercises, including the sit-ups I'm talking about in a highschool PE class Blue Flame HS CrossFit Competition. If this looks like it's right for you, look up CrossFit Kids for intense workouts meant for younger kids and teens. That the average mile run time for that group of students went from 12 mins down to 7 mins in just six weeks should tell you something.

[Zygimantas]

How about laughing? Does some good laughing work on the abs?

[pennywise]

nope.

[Bloodstain]

How about laughing? Does some good laughing work on the abs?

 

Well my abs don't hurt much when I laugh, if I puke a lot though they hurt. Maybe try sticking your finger down your throat a couple times a day. Yeah, that sounds good brb going to test it